Negotiate Your Offer: Know It, Plan It, Say It with Akanksha Verma

The moment an offer arrives is when you have the most leverage, and when most people accept straight away. A short, well-prepared conversation can change your salary, holiday, start date or flexibility for years to come, without putting the offer at risk.

Negotiate Your Offer is a four-page toolkit that takes you from first call to signed contract:

1. Your position: set your walk-away, target and ask numbers. Then identify your best alternative, why they need you, and the evidence that makes your ask fair.
2. What the offer is really worth: a total package calculator comparing your current package, the offer and your target in pounds. It covers base, realistic bonus, pension, benefits, holiday and commute costs. Sometimes the lower salary is the better deal.
3. Your priority map: decide what’s a must, what’s nice to have, and what you’ll trade, with an example of how to ask for each item.
4. Your concession plan: plan your opening ask, your fallback, and exactly what you’ll give in exchange for what.
5. Five word-for-word scripts: for when they ask your expectations, when the offer arrives, making your counter, making a trade, and accepting in writing. A filled-in example is included.
6. Handle the pushback: calm, ready-to-use responses to “That’s above the band”, “We need an answer today”, “The budget is fixed” and more.
7. Advanced moves: small things that change outcomes, such as using a precise number and pausing after you say it.

What you get:

• A 4-page fillable PDF with examples throughout
• Works on screen in any PDF app, or printed

Created by Akanksha, a career coach with experience in HR and workforce strategy. I’ve seen how offers are put together on the employer’s side, so I know where there’s room to move and how to ask for it.

Want to rehearse your negotiation? Book a 1:1 career strategy call with me here on Topmate.